


devaravati

by AllegoriesInMediasRes



Series: Baahubali fics [15]
Category: Baahubali (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Incomplete, Margazhi in Mahishmati
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2018-12-27
Packaged: 2019-09-28 10:05:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17180912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllegoriesInMediasRes/pseuds/AllegoriesInMediasRes
Summary: Devasena is imprisoned instead of exiled for chopping off Sethupathy's fingers, and Baahubali reinstated as Commander-in-Chief with a very obvious threat hanging over his head. With both halves of the dynamic duo chained in one way or another, Kumar Varma must act.devaravati (Sanskrit): having a brother-in-law





	devaravati

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CarminaVulcana](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CarminaVulcana/gifts).



> Hi Carmina! This (partially) answers the prompt where Devasena is imprisoned for attacking Sethupathy and Baahu remains Commander-in-Chief.

Amarendra Baahubali does not hear of his wife's trial until long after the sentence has been pronounced: imprisonment in Mahishmati's dungeons. With no Baahu standing alongside Devasena, complicit in her guilt, Rajmata Sivagami has no instinct of mercy, leading her to merely exile them rather than throw them in the dungeons. Her mercy manifests itself in a different way: Baahu is raised back to the now-empty post of Commander-in-Chief, his wife's disgrace notwithstanding.

The Queen Mother is merciful, even to those who do not deserve it. No one is foolish enough to accept the statement at face value, for they all can see Sivagami's infamous cunning underneath: the population will be less inclined to rebel, now that their beloved Baahubali now has a measure of power again, while she can hold his wife and his coming child over his head to keep him in line.

Never let it be said that Sivagami does not know how to turn a situation to her advantage.

* * *

Kumar Varma, as a member of the Kuntalan royal family, is  _persona non grata_ after the Yuvarani's imprisonment, but he will cut off his hands before he leaves Mahishmati while they are in mortal peril. Devasena and Baahubali were the ones who taught him how to be brave, and he must be brave now.

(That does not mean that perspiration does not break out on the back of his neck and under his arms at the most inopportune moments, staining his  _dhoti_ and leaving him chilled and sweaty at the same time.

That does not surprise him. His first instinct has always been towards cowardice.)

What  _does_ surprise him is how staunchly an un-ally Baahubali is proving to be. The slightest hint of doing anything to ameliorate or change Devasena's condition, and he shuts Kumar down before he can speak twenty words on the subject. Devasena is safest where she is, out of sight and out of the Rajmata's mind, and therefore unable to stir up her anger further. Devasena never aired her marital struggles publicly, but from what little she did share, Baahu's stubborn loyalty to his mother had been a constant sticking point between them. Kumar can appreciate her frustration now; Baahu refuses to countenance the possibility that the Rajmata might harm Devasena, and he is content to be a figurehead Commander-in-Chief, dancing to his brother's tune.

"And when the child is born? Do you think the Queen Mother will simply let the heir to Mahishmati grow up in a dungeon, or else in Kuntala?" Kumar demands.

Baahu's face shutters, and he dismisses Kumar from his presence, making it an order when he does not immediately comply.

Very well then; if Baahu is too lost in fealty to his aunt-mother, Kumar has another weapon at his resource, far more easily malleable: Kattappa.

It seems illogical that Kattappa's chains are easier to unwind than those that bind Baahu, when Kattappa's chains are physical while Baahu's metaphorical. But something in this grizzled old warrior had warmed to this four-fingered archer who found a place in her heart for a slave, even to accord him the status of a father, and Kumar works on him slowly and surely. Rumors abound as to what will happen once the child is born. Some say that even if he is the heir to Mahishmati, his half-Kuntalan heritage will render him forever unworthy in the Queen Mother's eyes, condemning him to eternal limbo. Some whisper that she and the King Bhallaladeva will raise it as their own, while others yet whisper of what Bijjaladeva might do to this child. 

It's the mention of the crippled drunk that finally goads Kattappa into action, and together he and Kumar forge the plan. Once Kattappa is on his side, the compliance of the guards and soldiers is easily bought -- Baahubali remains king of their hearts, if nothing else -- and before another moon has risen, Baahubali awakens in the luxurious chambers he was mockingly awarded to his wife standing before him, eight months pregnant and moonlight suffusing her form clad in prison rags. Behind her stand Kattappa, Kumar Varma, and a coterie of the renegade soldiers.

"This," Baahu pronounces, "was quite possibly the stupidest thing you could have done."

"Would you rather have trusted in your cousin-king's goodwill? Your mother's? Your  _uncle_ _'s_?" Kumar demands.

Baahubali exhales in a long, drawn-out sigh. Perhaps it's different for him, he alone who was fortunate to know a mother's love, and therefore bound by that love. Devasena and Kumar Varma found themselves orphaned before they were fully grown, and spent their formative childhoods raised by their elder siblings. King Jayasena and Queen Sumitra of Kuntala did their best, he will grant them that, but being raised by someone merely a decade older than you, who was once your playmate, cannot have been good for instilling obedience in them.

"I advised them much the same when they showed up outside my cell," Devasena says, only mildly apologetic. "But they had already knocked out half a dozen guards and broken, oh, about ten royal edicts, and it would have been churlish to repay the risks they took by refusing to leave."

The rumble of soldiers being roused is growing louder. Soon the escape of Mahishmati's most prized prisoner will be detected. 

In one fluid motion, Baahu has slid out of bed and flung his bow and quiver onto his shoulder. "I trust you were thorough enough to arrange for a getaway chariot? To Kuntala, I presume?"

"Where else?" Kumar smiles.

For all that Baahu has dragged his feet over the past months, he has taken their haphazard escape plan remarkably in stride, and the only words he speaks are those of concern for Devasena's condition, which she brushes off.

As they're navigating their way through the corridors, Kumar takes a moment to wonder if Baahu regrets marrying the Kuntala firebrand and thus, binding himself to trouble for life. He voices this in one of their off-moments to Baahu, who only chuckles.

"How else would I be able to have fun?" Baahu says, silenced when Devasena digs an elbow into his ribs, and Kumar relaxes.

 


End file.
